Real Mountain Values started as a running joke between myself, Brianna Willis and my husband, Patrick. A certain politician ran a campaign that constantly discussed mountain values. To tell you the truth Patrick and I don't remember that much about the campaign other than every time we would see a sign or commercial we would discuss exactly what made up a mountain value... Shotgun weddings?

Champion Beer Round 2

By Patrick, on May 24th, 2011

We finally got finished drinking our first batch of Champion Beer, which I think is what we’re going to call our beer from now on, and so it’s on to our next round of frothy goodness. Round 1 of the American ale was okay, not perfect, but highly “drinkable” as some would say. Overall I would give it a grade of ‘C’. So I’m hoping to improve with this next brew.

This time, co-brewmaster Ryan picked out a German Kolsch beer from our local supplier, Asheville Brewing Supply (A note about their website-it kinda sucks, which they will wholeheartedly agree with, so if you’re interested in homebrew, give them a call. They’re super nice and will answer all of your questions, even the idiotic ones.)

Ryan and I both like the lighter ales, especially for summer, so this blend should be perfect for those warm days in mid-June and early July. After getting our ingredients, Ryan and I went to work. This was a bit different from our last batch in that we got to steep grain before we brewed in the malt. But overall, it was pretty much the same process. However, we did make some upgrades in our equipment since last time. He’s the major one:

A pot o' gold (Stainless steel this time)

Yes, we finally got a stainless steel pot instead of an aluminum one, which really should only be used if you have nothing else (like we did). The Stainless pot should hopefully help the taste significantly. Those are ice packs in cold water there as we tried to cool the wort as quickly as possible. So we threw in the yeast (or as brewers say, ‘pitched’), stirred really well, and put the lid on the fermenter. And now the hard part yet again-the wait.

Ryan hard at work.

One of my favorite activities when I’m bored is to watch the air lock on the fermenter bubble. It mesmerizes me and for some reason, it pleases me immensely. It’s probably because I know that for every bubble, there’s just a little more alcohol that I’ll be enjoying later…Now, if only I could bring the fermenter to work…

So I’ll let you know how this batch turns out in a couple of weeks. The recipe says to wait two weeks after bottling before consuming, but I may wait a little longer-the last batch did much better after a few extra weeks. So we’ll see. Don’t forget, we also have Brianna’s dandelion wine still fermenting in the closet. We’ll let you know how that goes when the time comes. That’s an even longer wait.

1 comment to Champion Beer Round 2

[...] I’m not a person who handles stress terribly well. Some people get a high off of it and use the energy to get a lot accomplished. Me? Not so much. When I’m stressed I like to pretend it all doesn’t exist by doing as many mindless non-productive things as possible. Examples: I’m pretty sure there hasn’t been a single image posted on Pinterest that I have missed in the last couple of weeks and I have managed to contribute a number of empty beer bottles to Patrick’s stash for his homebrew. [...]